I don’t like to make predictions, but poll after poll is showing me that Congressional Democrats are in for a thumping on Nov. 2. Even White House flak Robert Gibbs conceded Sunday that it’s conceivable the Dems could lose the House of Representatives.
A new CBS poll shows how bad things are for Democrats. And it shows President Obama is very lucky he is not on the ballot this year.
Democratic operative James “Ragin’ Cajun” Carville said in 1992 when he was strategerizin’ for Bill Clinton, had a sign on his office wall at the Clinton campaign HQ that said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
It was then, and it is now. And people aren’t happy. The poll, which you can read in its entirety on the link above, shows that few people believe Obama’s policies have helped them. A massive 71 percent say the job market is bad. On a list of issues, the economy tops the list by far.
Of course the Republicans can still blow their big opportunity by catering to extremist elements in their party and not offering a positive program to compete with Obama and the Dems.
Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican takeover of the House in 1994, knew his party couldn’t win the electorate by being the party of “No” to Bill Clinton. Instead, Gingrich put together a 10 point program called the Contract With America, and didn’t over-promise about it. What he promised was that if Republicans took the House, they would bring these 10 issues to a vote, which they did with Newt as Speaker. Most of them passed.
John Boehner, the current House minority leader, does not show the passion, intellect or work ethic that Gingrich did. The Republicans’ strategy so far has been to be the Party of No and hope that works for them.
This year, with widespread disenchantment with Obama’s programs, all of which were approved by Congress, being the Party of No might be enough for the GOP to win. But I’m pretty sure if Gingrich were leading the charge, he’d have another 10-point program and would spend most of his time promoting it.
“We have a better plan to fix the economy” is better campaign strategy than just “Those guys are evil socialists.” Americans don’t know anything about political terms because they were taught nothing in school about government and politics other than how to pass a state-mandated Constitution test.
When are the Republicans going to adopt the “Contract FROM America”, created by the TEA Party, and expand on it? That would be a good start. See: http://www.thecontract.org/the-contract-from-america/
Speaking of the “Ragin’ Cajun”, check HIS poll on Obama:
Deep in the poll, they ask, “Now, I am going to read you a list of words and phrases which people use to describe political figures. For each word or phrase, please tell me whether it describes Barack Obama very well, well, not too well, or not well at all.” …
When asked about “a socialist,” 33 percent of likely voters say it describes Obama “very well,” 22 percent say “well,” 15 percent say “not too well,” and 25 percent say “not well at all.”
In other words, 55 percent of likely voters think “socialist” is a reasonably accurate way of describing Obama.
That’s not the worst of it, though.
Read the rest at: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/09/obama-underwater-in-carville-poll/